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Despite being severely punished by WHL last fall for alleged recruiting violations, Portland will battle the Halifax Mooseheads for the Memorial Cup title Sunday night.

Portland Winterhawks winger Oliver Bjorkstrand, left, and the rest of his bench celebrate their win over the London Knights in their Memorial Cup semifinal on Friday. The Winterhawks play the Halifax Mooseheads in the final on Sunday. (Liam Richards / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

SASKATOON—The objective, one supposes, was to punish the Portland Winterhawks by depriving them of their future while simultaneously stopping them in their tracks.

The former? Well, we’ll see about that.

The latter? A failure.

Instead, Portland is one victory away from securing the 2013 Memorial Cup title, a disappointing if not nightmarish scenario for those who applauded the heavy hand Western Hockey League authorities took to the Winterhawks earlier this season for alleged recruiting infractions and abuses.

This, clearly, was no death penalty, to borrow the parlance that so often accompanies sanctions applied to NCAA varsity programs found to be in violation of the rules. If the outlaw Winterhawks hoist the Memorial Cup on Sunday evening, they’ll be shoving it in the face of the many influential WHL owners and executives who will be frustrated that “those cheaters” will have won despite being caught.

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It was in late November last year that WHL president Ron Robison announced the punishment against the Winterhawks for four years of alleged misdeeds. The team was fined $200,000. Head coach and GM Mike Johnston was suspended for the season and ordered to have nothing to do with the team.

Portland was not allowed to take part in the first five rounds of the recent WHL bantam draft, and won’t have a first-round pick in that draft for another four years.

Ouch, right?

Well, the loss of all those draft picks will make Portland’s task of staying on top of the WHL more difficult. But the fine meant nothing and the removal of Johnston didn’t stop the Winterhawks from ripping through the WHL this season and capturing the league title over Edmonton, and it didn’t stop them from knocking off London in Friday night’s Memorial Cup semifinal.

On Sunday, Portland will face the Halifax Mooseheads for the title, a highly anticipated clash between the CHL’s two top-rated teams — Halifax is No. 1 — and the top three prospects for next month’s NHL draft. Portland defenceman Seth Jones is ranked first by NHL Central Scouting among North American players, while the Mooseheads’ dynamic duo of Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin are rated as the next best players.

It’s a collision between two junior clubs situated at opposite sides of the continent set to take place at, more or less, the midpoint. The glittering array of draft-eligible players has been the central theme of this tournament, but the issue of the Winterhawks has gurgled restlessly below the surface for the entire nine days.

As mentioned, much of the WHL remains angry and unsatisfied, while Portland remains defiant. Robison has steadfastly declined to publicly divulge the details of the alleged violations, allowing those who support the Hawks to claim this was all a gross overreaction on the part of the league and simply punished a well-run team for practices that are commonplace through the WHL and junior hockey.

Billionaire owner Bill Gallacher, who may have an interest in NHL ownership down the line, remains unapologetic and says his team didn’t cheat.

“Look, there’s a lot of jealousy in the league and a lot of jealousy outside the league with other fans,” he told The Oregonian in a recent interview. “I’m not sure how to (cheat). Someone will have to explain to me how to do that.

“What we did was put the best people in the right spots, empower them to do their jobs, and provide them with all of the tools they needed.”

The Winterhawks have been very successful in luring many American teenagers to come to Portland, sometimes by using the NCAA hockey option as a threat. As Max Domi did in turning down Doug Gilmour and the Kingston Frontenacs and forcing a trade to London by threatening to go to the U.S. to play, so did Jones, born in Plano, Texas, spurn the Everett Silvertips until his rights were ultimately traded to Portland.

WHL officials haven’t said whether the Jones deal was part of their investigation into Portland, or which players were, so we’re all left to guess here.

Like Portland with Jones, the Mooseheads paid a heavy price for MacKinnon when it was clear he wouldn’t play for Baie-Comeau, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team that drafted him. In July 2011, owner Bobby Smith and GM Cam Russell swapped two players and three first-round picks to the Drakkar.

What is clear is that throughout the CHL, teams in smaller markets are frustrated because they believe richer teams are cheating, both in practice and by using money, and gaining an unfair advantage.

How much of it is frustration and jealousy and how much of it is a flawed system unable to control ambitious teams depends on who you talk to.

The Winterhawks? They just believe they’re playing the game, on and off the ice, better than anyone else

And they certainly won’t be apologizing if they lift the Memorial Cup on Sunday evening.

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